Gotcha Morning | Hope and Change and America the Beautiful

Much of the discussion on yesterday's political talk shows revolved around Mitt Romney's "retroactive retirement" from Bain Capital. But on CBS' Face The Nation, campaign ads from both President Obama and Mitt Romney dominated the conversation.

Obama advisor Stephanie Cutter sat down for a debate with Romney advisor Kevin Madden (who has seemingly replaced the gaffe prone Eric Fehrnstrom) and the criticism from the Romney camp quickly turned to the recent Obama ad titled "Firms." Madden said he found it "very troubling" that the Obama campaign would "mock someone who's singing 'God Bless America.'" First of all, Romney is singing "America the Beautiful." Secondly, they're not mocking him for singing (which has already been covered by Jay Leno, David Letterman and Michelle Obama), they're using irony to demonstrate his hypocrisy. And finally, it's a clever, memorable ad that clearly has the Romney camp rankled.

Later in the Face The Nation broadcast, host Bob Schieffer was surprised to discover that Mitt Romney had bought time on the show to premiere a new ad that stars Schieffer himself. Called "Hope and Change?," the ad shows Schieffer on a recent broadcast complaining that Obama has replaced his old hopeful message with negative attacks. Schieffer unintentionally gave the ad an extra boost by replaying it in full, while at the same time making sure viewers know that it does not count as an endorsement.

Both campaigns are going to get the most out of these ads and others by buying air time on TV and repeating them as much as they can afford. But both ads demonstrate a desire on behalf of Obama and Romney to create pieces that will get the media's attention and be replayed within news segments and on the internet. This time it may have been the Romney ad that made it onto Face The Nation, but thanks to President Obama's vast social media advantage over Mitt Romney, as of this writing "Firms" has close to 800,000 views on YouTube while "Hope and Change?" has only 26,000.